CHAPTER XXII. 



JUDGING STOCKER OR FEEDER CATTLE. 



Stockers or feeders represent a class of cattle that are 

 thin in flesh, yet possess the essential factors which, with 

 time and feed, will produce the high-class beef animal. That 

 which has thus far been described of beef cattle, relates 

 to the finished condition, whether for butcher or show 

 ring. It is highly essential that the cattleman or judge 

 should be able to select thin animals that will feed out 

 satisfactorily. In fact it requires far more discrimination 

 to judge thin cattle than it does those that are finished. 

 However, the same essential features are found in stockers 

 and feeders that are found in the others, excepting for 

 differences in size and in lack of condition. Stockers are 

 young cattle, and are regarded as in the calf class, while 

 feeders are more mature, and are the sort used in the feed 

 lot for immediate feeding and fattening. Men rarely buy 

 feeders that weigh under 800 pounds, although some fancy 



Fig. 143. — "Feeders are more mature and are the sort used In the feed 

 lot." (Photo by courtesy Ohio Agr. Exp. Station.) 



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